A conventional gate driver circuit used for driving a power switching device of a power converter utilizes semiconductor switching devices to turn on the power switching device and to discharge an input capacitance thereof when the power switching device is turned off. Such a conventional power switching device driver circuit loses approximately twice the energy stored in the device's input capacitance each time the device switches through an on and off cycle. Furthermore, as the operating frequency of a converter increases, power dissipation in the switching devices also increases. However, by operating the power converter at higher frequencies, smaller reactive components can be used, resulting in a smaller power supply. Thus, there is a tradeoff between power supply efficiency and size.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved gate driver circuit for driving a power switching device of a power converter.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high efficiency gate driver circuit for driving a power switching device of a high frequency power converter which is small in size.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a high efficiency gate driver circuit which requires a gate drive supply voltage of only approximately one-half the desired gate voltage of the power switching device.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a switching device driver circuit for a power converter which substantially eliminates gate switching losses during turn-on of the power switching device.